A pause....

After a long long time

I pause

take a deep breath

look around and

actually see...
The world that I thought,changes at every blink-
had not changed at all!!
The tree in whose shade I played hide and seek
the lane in whose narrow confines I grew up
the steps that take me to my home -
the four wall quadrangle
that stands amidst damp and dirt
a window that gives me my piece of sky
the floor, the ground on which I walk
and the roof, the surety and security of a shelter-
everything is as it always was....

All that is changed, is
the curtain on the windows
the carpet on the floor ...
the coat of color on the peeling plaster
and, the way I have been looking at it all.

In the haste of daily routine
I have changed the way I feel
I have been looking and not seeing
I have been speaking and not talking...
I have been following a path and not walking..
I have been living and not been alive.

A pause, a brief pause, shows me where I am
But what happens when the pause ends..
and I exhale the breath
I have been holding so long?